Gone
by notawordsmith
Summary: What's gone?  Who's gone? This is the one time Donnie couldn't save a life, but he's cool with that, he's calling it even.  Now if only he could get Leo to stop screaming about it. *one shot*


**Because everybody loses somebody, sometimes.**

**Doesn't mean you have to make a big song and dance about it.**

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**Gone**

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Run.

The wail that rammed into the side of Leo's head didn't stay there. It went straight to his toes. Picked him off the meditation mats and flew him out of one door only to be greeted in a thudding halt against another. Donnie's lab.

Locked.

"Noooooooooooooo!"

Leo rattled the door, but it was stuck fast. Locked from the inside with no hope of getting a key.

Splinter had taken the two hot heads, Mikey and Raph out for an exercise and for once, Leo was enjoying the blissful peace. The peace that came from just him, his mediations, and the gentle puttering of his quiet brother, Donatello.

That was, until now.

The frantic wail of a medic on the edge of hysteria maddened Leo's mind as he pounded uselessly at the door.

_What could possibly be so wrong?_ He mused.

"Breathe damnit! For the love of Kami breathe!" was his only reply, as the sounds of Donatello, desperately ripping his lab apart for some unknown item, sent the usually stoic leader's mind in a whirl.

Leo furrowed his brow as he pondered all the possibilities. His meditations had been quite successful, almost reaching the astral plane. There was a very good possibility that one of his brothers had been hurt and brought in unawares.

But that wouldn't explain the locked door, Leo rationed, so dismissed the idea entirely.

Unless? A nagging, creeping, slithering, thought of horror groped his brain.

What if it had been Sensei that was hurt? Perhap that is what happened and they had locked him out to spare him the agony?

"Nooooooo! I'm losing him! Urgh! Just ... hold ... on ... a little ..."

"Donnie!" Leo pounded on the door with all his might, images of a broken and bloodied Father breaking his brain. "You open this door this GODDAMN minute you HEAR ME!"

"Can't!" was Donnie's strained reply. His voice was tense, panicked, like his hands were in the complex kata of keeping a soul alive. Leonardo had heard it often enough to know. "Just give me a minute will ya Leo? Patient's real shocky right now. Real unstable. Don't want to slip up and have a death on my hands ok?"

Useless. Useless and defeated and burning shame at not being able to help made the hapless leader slide down the door and pool at the bottom. _It can't be_, his brain told him repeatedly as he tried to make sense of it all.

It just can't.

"Just behave for me ok? That's it, nice and easy. Take a deep breath, come on, you can do it. Just stay away from the light ok?"

The gentle cooing of Donatello made Leo's panic flare all the more. Why couldn't he hear any other voices? Where were his brothers? Could it be?

The horrible realisation made Leo bury his head in his hands.

Of course. That had to be it.

If Sensei was down, then the others would be too. There was no way his brothers would let anything happen to Father without the ultimate fight.

The ultimate price.

"D-Donnie?" Leo's voice sounded pathetically weak in his own ears as his worst nightmare had finally stalked into reality. "If you open the door, I might be able to help? Pass you things or something?"

A low, dark chuckle seeped under the door dripping with sarcasm. "Leo? Last time I looked you weren't really good with this kinda stuff, and to be perfectly honest? I didn't want you to see. I thought you 'd get upset and be pretty damn mad about it."

Another torrent of abuse about how thoughtless, uncaring and unkind his younger brother was for even THINKING in such a manner, when the situation was so dire, was about to hurl off of Leonardo's lips when more frantic crashing and bashing was hear beyond the door.

"NO! No no no no no no no! Don't crash! Noooooooo ... losing ... vitals ... what? NO WAY! C'mon! Live for me will you? LIVE! Please? For your good old Donnie's sake? For Leo's sake? Please? I'm beggin' here ... don't leave me ... don't leave us! Please? FOR THE LOVE OF KAMI! !"

Then nothing.

Nothing but the screaming of two turtles lost in a sea of agonising disappointment and failure. One within, and one without.

Some time later, how long no one knew, a final click as heard from the lab door. Groaning with the effort of ages, it pushed Leonard's shattered form aside as it slowly opened. A haunted, pale, gaunt Donatello shuffled out on unknowing legs and looked at his brother with unseeing eyes.

"Gone." was all he was able to mumble past his dry and cracked lips, as he slumped heavily into Leonardo's awaiting arms.

The fearful leader looked past his brother and into the murky depths of the lab beyond. Every fibre in his body screamed out for him to drop Donnie to the floor, race past him, view the horror with his own two eyes and pay his final respects.

However Father had taught him better than that. He would respect his father's wishes.

Remember the rules of war.

The dead are dead and no more can be done for them.

Keep alive the living.

Moving his brother to the couch, Leo had to use considerable force to get his brother to bend in the middle. Donatello did evenutally snap and flop heavily into the couch cushions below.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" was all Leo's brain could think to say.

"Not really, Leo." was Donatello's stunted reply.

They both shifted uncomfortably on the couch, neither of them wanting to break the perfect balance and let reality flood back in.

Like Shrodenger's cat.

Leo supposed someone had better take a peek.

Before he even got a chance to move, Donatello hugged his brother fiercely.

"I'm so sorry Leo. Please don't be mad. I did everything I could."

Tears started to seep from Leonardo's eyes as he grabbed hold of his younger brother and tried to think of the words that would bring his brother the most comfort.

"You did your best Donnie. That's more than anyone could ask."

"I promise when I rebuild, I'll make him ten times better."

This comment knocked Leonardo flat. He peeled himself from his brother's supportive embrace to look at him with terrorising fascination.

He knew Donnie was a genius, some of the thing he could do and make in his lab defied description. Probably defied half a dozen proven theories of science too, but what the shell.

But rebuilding their Sensei? Like he was some cruel Frankenstein joke, with mad scientist Donnie at the helm?

Leo didn't think he could stand for that.

"I should have him up and running in the next few days though Leo so don't fret. I promise I won't miss out on any of my practice or studies whilst I'm rebuilding him. Shouldn't take very long at all ..." Donnie babbled on, completely unaware of the building horror that was flooding out of Leonardo's widened eyes.

"Donnie? I don't think you should be doing that. I don't think he would like to rise from the dead."

This time it was Donatello's turn to be utterly confused. His mindless prattled turned instantly to silence as he stared at his brother with his owlishly wide, chocolate eyes.

"What ARE you on about Leo?"

"Rebuilding. You really shouldn't be rebuilding him. I don't think he'd like it very much."

"Well I didn't like it very much when he died on me, so I'm calling it even." Donatello sulked.

"Donatello Hamato!" Leonardo snapped, his patience worn completely thin. "I forbid you to do ANY rebuilding of ANY sort! Do you hear me?"

Donatello could do nothing but gape and open and close his mouth uselessly. A look of complete and utter mortification poured out of every pore as his brain shattered at Leonardo's command. Fearless never ordered needlessly, and all orders were sacred. Followed to the letter of the law.

Unless you were Raphael.

The elder brother looked at the completely dumbstruck Donatello with grim satisfaction. That was the proper demeaner one should have over the loss of their beloved Sensei.

"But, but, but, but ..." the words, trembled and trickled out of his younger brother's lips as the tears poured from his eyes.

"My COMPUTER!" he bawled against his brother's shoulder. "How will I ever LIVE without my COMPUTER?"

"Your COMPUTER?" Leonardo roared as the realisation of what had occurred blindsided him and left his mind seething.

"Yeah Leo." Donnie's pure innocence sniffed, and snivelled in Leonardo's ear as he dried his eyes with a wipe of his arm. "My computer DIED Leo. I spilt coffee on it and it fritzed. Couldn't save the hard drive no matter what I did. All that hard earned data GONE Leo! Just gone. Couldn't breathe life back into him no matter how hard I tried.

The rock hard demeanor of his normally kind leader made the younger turtle look up at him with eyes shining their confusion. As the soft chocolate eyes met the hardened glint of the onyx, Donatello knew something was wrong. He just didn't know what.

"Why Leo? What did you think happened back there?"

"Oh nothing." Leonardo casually brushed the question aside as his mind dredged up all the cruel, sick and twisted lessons he would impart on his purple masked brother in next morning's practice.

"Just that someone died. And is going to need rebuilding real soon."

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**A/N: Quite a few of my friends have been having internet and computer problems, including me.**

**Made me wonder what would happen if Donnie lost his, how would he react?**

**When I got my new computer I decided to call him Frankly, or Frank for short.**

**Why?**

**Cause Frankly, he's a PITA. Frankly, he never does what I want him to do and Frankly just doesn't give a damn.**

**He's very Frank about that.**

**Thought Donatello would probably have the same twisted humour I do, hence the "him" reference.**

**Rant, rave, review. Seems like I've been missing my mark lately ... is it back on track?**


End file.
